Zvezda, British Bofors 40-mm Mk. 1/2 AA-gun, Kit No. 6170

The small box contains 4 dark tan sprues with a total of 57 parts. Of those, 39 go into the gun, 16 make up the crew of 4, and 2 make up a base and an oversized flag if this is to be used as a war gaming piece. The moulding of the parts is excellent, with great detail on all parts of the gun, carriage and crew.

The model is described as 'snap fit - no glue required', though the instructions note that glue can be used 'for more reliable connection of details'. The only parts the specifically require gluing are the 4 fixing stakes (A7) that are carried on the sides of the carriage.

A few minor criticisms of the kit are:

The moulded sights (parts A6 and A8 x 2) are clunky, but probably could not be done better in injection moulded plastic. Dan Taylor Model Works offers several photo-etched sets representing different variations of Bofors sights. These are nominally 1/76, but can likely be adapted to fit the Zvezda kit.

The gunners' platform (A25) has two holes in it to accept pegs on the feet of one of the standing loaders. Similarly, the two seats (A27 and A32) each have a hole in the backrest to accept a peg on the crewmen's backs. These should be filled if the crew is not used, however this is not noted in the instructions.

The gun carriage is moulded with the outriggers deployed, so depicting the model in a towing configuration will require some surgery.

The gun is not designed to rotate on the base, but can only be installed at one of four positions. This can easily be changed by removing the pegs from the bottom of part A25.

The gun shields are a reasonable job of representing the spaced construction of the originals, but could be improved by adding a groove along the edges, or by rebuilding the parts with thin card or metal.

A total of four 40-mm ammo clips are provided - one moulded in place on the gun, two moulded together on the ammo rack (these could be improved by scribing a groove along the top edge) and one moulded in the hands of a loader. Additional ammo clips or ammo boxes would have been a nice accessory for the kit.

No decals or painting instructions are provided.

When this kit was first issued there were comments on some online forums suggesting that the kit was actually 1/76 scale. I was unable to find drawings or much in the way of dimensional information, so I measured a real Bofors gun (located at the Brockville Armory in Brockville, Ontario) against the kit's parts, shown above. The results are summarized in the table below.

Dimension	Full size [inches]	1/72 [mm]	Zvezda [mm]	1/76 [mm]	scale
A - length of breech casing	39.25	13.8	13.7	13.1	72.8
B - length of barrel sleeve	21.875	7.7	6.9	7.3	80.5
C - length of exposed barrel and flash hider	68	24.0	24.5	22.7	70.5
D - length of flash hider	11	3.9	4.4	3.7	63.5
E - overall length of gun	132.25	46.7	46.9	44.2	71.6
F - width of shield	25.5	9.0	9.3	8.5	69.6
G - height of shield	43	15.2	15.6	14.4	70.0
H - width of gunner's platform	63	22.2	22	21.1	72.7
I - length of recuperator cylinders	30.75	10.8	11.2	10.3	69.7
J - diameter of foot pad	14	4.9	4.7	4.7	75.7
K - side-to-side distance between mounting feet	144	50.8	50.3	48.1	72.7
L - fore-and-aft distance between mounting feet	144	50.8	49.8	48.1	73.4
M - width of frame above rear axle	45	15.9	16.5	15.0	69.3

I conclude that the gun is very close to being 1/72 scale, with the biggest scale issues being the barrel sleeve, which is nearly 1 mm too short, and the flash hider, which is about 0.5 mm too long. I would say the model will fit in well with other 1/72 vehicles.

Preview sample purchased by the author.

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Article Last Updated: 05 August 2016